running dialogue.
By aubreyOctober 22nd, 2007
Megs: so why do we question what design SHOULD look like
Aubrey Stalnaker: yes
Aubrey Stalnaker: why?
Megs: just thinking out loud now.
Megs: yes why?
Megs: who determines what GOOD design is.
Megs: ?
Megs: The question becomes…what should GOOD design look like?
Aubrey Stalnaker: right
Aubrey Stalnaker: what is good?
Aubrey Stalnaker: how do we define that?
Megs: right. and who determines it?
Aubrey Stalnaker: who saays great is better than good
Aubrey Stalnaker: ?
Megs: perhaps we shouldn’t use the word “good” when discussing design, but rather “appropriate.”
Megs: how do you save convos on this thing?
Aubrey Stalnaker: who made up these words? and why do we use them in design?
Megs: just save as
Aubrey Stalnaker: im going to post this convo
Aubrey Stalnaker: on the blog
Megs: okay good
Megs: i think posting an existing dialogue is awesome
Megs: DO IT
Aubrey Stalnaker: done and done
Megs: put ur name this time would ya
Aubrey Stalnaker: ha
Aubrey Stalnaker: no
Aubrey Stalnaker: i want to be this invisible contributor
Megs: aubs sometimes I like talking about design more then I do actually designing
Megs: ha not aloud
Megs: develop a voice. you have one that needs to be heard.
How often do you think that “Good design” is truly good, or just hype? I’ll admit sometimes I get tied up in the neat ideas of how something can fold or what material its made out of that would put a project “over the top” and overlook so many of the tiny details because I’ve spent too much time trying to make it look so cool. I feel the same way about some design thats out there…but because of someone’s name behind it, or the studio it came out of, its immediately deemed as “award winning” or something.
Am I the only one that feels this way? *shrug*
thats the frustrating thing about design in my opinion. something that is appropriate design is not necasarily good design. design is subjective and everyone is going to have their own opinions. what might look really good may not be appropiate and sometimes what is appropriate may look like crap. so as designers we know that not everyone is going to like what we do. but when we can back up why we did something a certain way it makes our designs that much stronger…obviously. i don’t really know where i am going with this
if you like it, it is good.
if it is appropriate you will not always like it, but it may still be good.
Aubrey: This reminds me of our Lust workshop conversation when we talked about “the design vs. the execution.” What happens when you come to the crossroad where the most appropriate design solution does not always stylistically fit the mold of GOOD? That’s the push and pull of the design world I guess. Maybe it’s left up to us as designers to find a happy medium between keeping the meaning and making it stylistically appropriate?
is process style?
I think process can be, or lead to style. Most of the time we (in our design infancy) do our process a specific way every time, perhaps leading to similar styles, or specific style. I know when we have process crits there are certain things I expect to see from some people as part of their process. Is that considered style or just repetition?
a comfort zone?